


Rise

by Corvus_florensis



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Heavy Angst, Reylo - Freeform, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, because good god it needs some fixing it, bitch it's canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22850644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvus_florensis/pseuds/Corvus_florensis
Summary: As he holds her lifeless body, Ben Solo is ready to pay whatever price he has to so he can bring her back.But he is not alone.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	Rise

**Author's Note:**

> So, The Rise of Skywalker kind of broke me. I actually started writing this a few days after I saw it, but I stopped it because it was so early and there was a lot I still needed to process. I still cry sometimes when I think about Ben and Rey and the other characters, but its been better lately.
> 
> There was a point when I was writing this when I had a small breakdown, because there was such an obvious ending that would have been one of the most impactful things to ever happen in cinema. And instead, we got “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” And we’re supposed to be grateful we didn’t get “He lost the star war” instead.
> 
> English isn’t my first language, so I apologize for stupid errors you might find. Please comment on them so I can correct them once I have time.

The wind whistled through the cold, ancient rocks of Exegol, howling through the old Sith temple as a symphony of solitude. The voices of the remaining Sith lords, who just moments before were echoing along the hallways and corridors of this dark place, were now silenced, perhaps forever. All that remained was the whistle of the wind.

A hand appeared from the bottom of the pit, clinging to the loose rocks with a sort of frantic energy, desperate to hoist the rest of its body up to the plateau where the throne of the Sith rested.

Ben Solo barely took a moment to look at his own injuries before stumbling towards the body that lied on the dark floor. Wrapped in her white clothes, she stood in stark contrast with the rest of the place.

_No._

The Force wouldn’t allow this. Not after everything she… _they_ went through.

_Please, no._

Rey’s body stood still, her skin, sick and pale. He reached her and cradled the lifeless body in his arms as best as he could. Ben could hardly breathe properly. He stared at the ghost of the person he’d come to save, unable to calm himself. He desperately reached out to her, with his own feelings, trying to sense their bond, a sliver of something, _anything_ that could bring her back.

There was only the whistle of the wind against the cold, dark rocks.

Ben Solo looked around him, searching in vain for someone to tell him what to do, to teach him how to reach her, to talk to her, to tell her he’s sorry for everything… But there was no one there besides him. Ben Solo was alone. As alone as he’s ever been. Because he pushed the only living person who could understand him away, and now she lied there, _dead_ , in his arms.

And there was nothing he could do.

He held her as long as he could, trying to hold each feature of her face in his mind’s eye, trying to held onto every little detail. He looked at her hands, calloused from the years of scavenging in the wastelands of Jakku. Ben thought about the first time he laid eyes on her, outside the castle in Takodana. The memory of being drawn to that irresistible feeling, of knowing they were meant to be at that exact moment in that exact time…

Ben Solo would never forget what that felt like. In fact, he was starting to realize that might actually be the only thing ever worth feeling.

He hugged Rey’s body, tears dawning on his now scarless face, hardly able to breathe. Somewhere deep inside of him, he could feel the invisible wound the girl in his arms had inflicted him on the Death Star wreckage on Kef Bir. The wound caused by his own lightsaber, now resting at the depths of the moon’s ocean… until it wasn’t.

That saber, his source of shame and regret, of how he failed to save the people that mattered… was now in his right hand. Wet, but otherwise intact.

Ben Solo ignited the saber, showering him and Rey in the blade’s blood-red, cackling light.

He couldn’t take it - _any of it_ \- back. Doesn’t matter how far it travelled, it would always come back to find him, just like the Emperor, and Snoke before him. There was no running away from that. It would always be there, regardless of the fate of the rest of the galaxy, and Ben couldn’t stand it, couldn’t stand living in a world without _her_ , only left with memories he’d rather forget.

But perhaps… perhaps he wouldn’t have to.

If there was even an ounce of truth to what Luke Skywalker preached about the Force, than it would grant him this one thing… at least this one. It would not let this galaxy endure another second without her presence. No. He wouldn’t let it. She deserved more than dying in a forgotten planet at the edge of the universe.

Even though he knew the technique, he never had a reason to use it before. In theory, he would just have to reach her across the Force and use it to give her his own essence. It would require him to be completely in tune with her feelings and to detach himself from all that mattered to him, but he was ready for it. Whatever the price he had to pay, he would do so gladly.

“I thought like that too, a long time ago.”

Ben almost jumped, looking around him for the source of the mysterious voice. One of the Sith had maybe survived? That couldn’t be. He felt as they vanished with Palpatine, their lives being scattered throughout the living Force as their connection to this world was severed.

So what was that?

As he faced forward, the face of a young man welcomed him with gentle eyes. He was on his knees. Ben couldn’t understand it. Was he really there? Or was this just a projection, like the one Luke had used to trick him on Crait?

The young man smiled in a weirdly sad way, apparently reading Ben’s thoughts. He had a nasty scar that ran across his eye and marked an otherwise flawless face.

“I’m sorry for being this late, Ben. I wished I could have come sooner.” He looked at the destroyed silhouette of the Sith throne. “But he wouldn’t allow anyone to get close to you.”

Realization began dawning on Ben, but he still had to make sure: “Who… who are you?”

The man got up, still looking at him, with Rey’s limp body hanging across his lap, trying so hard to juggle all these different emotions with that overwhelming grief.

Anakin Skywalker looked at Ben Solo, in the same place he once was, feeling the same loss, and hating himself as much as he once had. And still… still, he could see his light. It shone like a beacon. A beacon of hope, illuminating things beyond the dark and empty cave in which he stood. _No_ , Skywalker thought. _Ben Solo has never been lost to us. But at last, he has come home._

A figure appeared at his side. It was that of a young woman. She held a necklace in her right hand, offering it to the man at her side. She was beautiful. Her eyes held the sort of beauty that could only exist after enduring great pain. Perhaps a lifetime of it. But now, they smiled. Smiled at them both.

“You know who we are, Ben.” Padmé Amidala said with her clear voice “And we’re here for you.”

“We never left you.” Luke Skywalker smiled at her side, an older man than the one Ben fought on Crait, but with the same crooked smile and the cocky attitude.

“You’re not alone, kid.”

At his side, the kind face of his father, Han Solo, come through like the rising sun.

“Not anymore, son.”

And there it was. The weathered, beautiful, thoughtful and above all else, _loving_ face of Leia appeared beside Han. She reached him, passing her hand through his hair, touching his face, looking deeply into his tearful eyes.

“Ben.”

“Mom… I… I’m so sorry.”

Leia only smiled at him.

“I… I couldn’t save her.” Suddenly, he felt like a child again, crying to his mother, letting every ounce of that pain show through.

“Ben Solo… always thinking he has to do everything by himself. I wonder where you get that from.” Han scoffed by her side, turning his eyes towards Ben. “Reach her, son.”

Suddenly, Anakin, Padmé and Luke were all there, behind him, each lending him the strength he needed to reach Rey. He felt as if he was able to reach… _everything_. He could feel the sand dunes of Tatooine moving as the binary suns set in the horizon, the lights of Coruscant getting brighter, with the flying vehicles shooting above and the air simmering with potency, the connections between its millions of inhabitants now palpable to him. He could see a never-ending field of green that overlooked a lake. He had never seen this place before, but he somehow knew it’s name…

_Naboo_.

It was a warm place. A place of happiness, he felt, where great light was able to bloom. But underneath it all, there was something else. A looming shadow.

“Great light. Great darkness. Balance.” He could hear Luke’s voice whispering through the blades of grass. Yes, this was also a place of sadness. A place that held failed promises and broken hearts. A place of tragedy.

And beyond all that… her.

“REY!” Ben screamed not only with his voice, but with his whole body, using every bit of strength he had left.

Rey looked back at him. And the biggest smile he had ever seen began forming on her lips. He called again for her, desperately trying to reach. At the other side of the lake, Rey extended her hand, reaching for him. They were close, _so close_ , but something was wrong, something was missing... 

They were back on Tatooine, surrounded by walls of sand and misery, trapped by the past, unable to move forward.

A figure appeared between him and Rey. It was a woman. She was dressed as a scavenger, wearing tattered clothes that clung to her body with belts and wires. She appeared to be old, but the years she wore on her face only highlighted her endurance and courage.

“You are so brave, Ben. Never give up hope on the people you love.”

Shmi Skywalker extended her hands to both of them, closing the gap that existed before, filling the missing space between the stars. It was as if, suddenly, the whole universe was set afire, burning with energy once more, with each star setting eyes on them, as they inched ever so closer towards each other, until finally…

Rey rested her hand over his, so lightly he thought he could be dreaming. But then he opened his eyes, and there she was. Awake. _Alive_. Looking at him like he was the only other person in the universe. From her lips, a single, trembling word:

“Ben.”

For what felt like the first time in forever, Ben Solo smiled. A smile that completely obliterated the mask he spent years using to hide his emotions. It was as if it had never existed. She had taken it off of him, offered the chance to see the world with his own eyes instead. He was smiling because he was grateful. Grateful for the chance to look at her again. To see a world she was a part of. _A better one_.

She squeezed his hand, and that’s when he noticed his lightsaber was still there. They looked at it. Silently, they both held it upwards, towards the ceiling of the cave, and Rey ignited it.

They were enveloped by the soft baby blue light that came from it. Both the crossguards and the blade were now stable, steady beams of solid light that glowed uniformly.

Finally looking at each other again, they placed the saber in the ground and, smiling, kissed.

It was hard to see where one of them began and the other ended. In that moment, they were _everything_. It was a kiss of passion, sorrow, regret, redemption and so, so much more than words would ever be able to explain.

It was a kiss for the future, and all the promises it now held.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that’s it folks. Hope you had a good time and that your heart is a little more full now :D <3


End file.
